A data center is a collection of secure, fault-resistant resources that are accessed by users over a communications network (e.g., a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet). By way of example only, the resources of a data center may comprise servers, storage, switches, routers, or modems. Often, data centers provide support for corporate websites and services, web hosting companies, telephony service providers, internet service providers, or application service providers.
Some data centers, such as Hewlett-Packard Company's Utility Data Center (UDC), provide for virtualization of various resources within the data center. For example, a data center may comprise a server pool from which servers may be dynamically provisioned to form one or more virtual networks. The virtual networks may then be provisioned to one or more clients.
One issue that needs to be addressed by a data center is security, including 1) the security of the data center's core (e.g., the data center's controller) from attack via one or more of the virtual networks, and 2) the security of each virtual network from attack via another one of the virtual networks.